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Otherworld Ensemble is a joint project lead by Heikki “Mike” Koskinen and Finnish American Rent Romus exploring the music of jazz and improvisation inspired by the Arctic diaspora featuring a powerhouse of some of the most creative musicians on the Finnish music scene. The music utilizes these elements while embedded structurally in ways that abstractly reference the Northern thematic. Live at Malmitalo is the first meeting of the ensemble recorded live at this iconic cultural center in Helsinki Finland.
- Rent Romus - tenor recorder, e-trumpet, flutes, kantele
- Heikki Koskinen - e-trumpet, tenor recorder, piano
- Mikko Innanen - alto, baritone and sopranino saxophones, flutes, percussion
- Teppo Hauta-aho - double bass
Press Quotes
Oakland musician and Outsound New Music Summit organizer Rent Romus takes his sax and flute to Helsinki, Finland where he is joined by excellent Finnish musicians to make this remarkable live 2017 album. This is a very weird but very beautiful and listenable project. The sound is terrific, lovely tones from all instruments. The tracks do not remind me of anything I have heard before and that’s a good thing.
This music is especially active, full of gorgeous and unusual timbres, extended playing expressions, experimental ways of playing and dynamic rhythmic.
The interaction of the gentle horn chanting and the contrabass playing the countermelody is like a love affair where the birds and the trees living in the Finnish conifers communicate with each other through the wind.
Impressive songs from different worlds continue from the beginning , and in addition to the rich ensembles based on the modern and bre-modern jazz traditions, the accompaniment solos featured in each of them also have a rich personality.
…a variety of tonal and temperament strategies are exhibited on the mostly brief tunes, leading to overlapping folds of distinctive musical thoughts.